Kansas University sophomore Aaron Miles might be the most underrated basketball player in this year’s NCAA Tournament Final Four.

Case in point: The 6-foot-1, 175-pound point guard, who has registered 233 assists against 117 turnovers this season while plucking 90 steals, hasn’t heard a lot of praise for starting on back-to-back Final Four teams.

“I don’t listen. I block it all out,” said Miles, who KU coach Roy Williams earlier this year said received the most media and fan criticism of any player he’d ever coached.

“A lot of people other than our fans would love to see us go out,” Miles said. “A lot of people just try to look at all the negative things that happen to a team and try to point those out to see why they can’t make it. Some people like to talk about the negative more than the positive.”

Not all individuals, however.

Take both coaches in Saturday’s 5:07 p.m. national semifinal game between KU and Marquette at the Superdome in New Orleans.

“Everybody talks about experience. Last year, if you ask me which one of our players played best at the Final Four, I’d say Aaron Miles, our freshman,” Williams said.

“We tried to give Aaron a great deal of confidence. He was the guy we wanted to lead our club. And his play backed up our confidence. Sometimes I think I set guys up for a fall saying their biggest improvement comes from their freshman to sophomore years. But in Aaron’s case, he’s had a heckuva year.”

Of Miles, who averages 8.9 points off 40.4 percent shooting, Marquette coach Tom Crean gushed: “He is an incredible on-the-ball defender. I’ve not seen a guy with quicker feet and quicker hands. He is a very good basketball player.”

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Miles’ numbers are pretty similar to a year ago, when he dished 252 assists — second-most in a season in school history. He’s just 319 assists away from Jacque Vaughn’s all-time school mark.

“I’m not here to show the fans what I can do. I’m here to do whatever it takes for this team to be successful,” said Miles.

After logging just 10 more assists than turnovers in KU’s uncharacteristic 3-3 start, Miles settled down the rest of the season with a plus 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.

The honorable mention All-Big 12 Conference selection boosted his scoring average from 7.1 points per game last season to 8.9 ppg this season and recorded 30 more steals than a year ago.

• Moody fields calls: Christian Moody, a freshman forward from Asheville, N.C., has received numerous phone calls from friends back home hoping for inside information related to North Carolina’s basketball program. Speculation began last week that UNC would fire coach Matt Doherty, then make a run at KU coach Roy Williams.

“I just tell them I don’t know anything,” Moody said. “I don’t think coach Williams is concentrating on any of that stuff.”

Moody wore a T-shirt commemorating teammate Nick Collison’s 1,000th career rebound to Tuesday’s news conference at KU.

“I like your chances of getting that autographed,” one reporter quipped.

• Williams on Marquette: “I told my team I don’t know if I’ll show you the film of the Kentucky game. It’s too scary,”’ Williams said of the Golden Eagles’ 83-69 Elite Eight rout of the Wildcats in Minneapolis. “I can’t sleep anyway, but I couldn’t sleep after watching that tape.”
• KU practice: The Jayhawks practiced Thursday at Tulane University. It was closed to the media and public. The team attended the Final Four salute dinner Thursday night.